On Fri, 16 May 1997, Matt Posner wrote:

I would be against splitting the FFML; not that, since I'm a newcomer,
I'm in a position to know how great it used to be two years ago. Whoops,
there goes the neighborhood.

The more people on the list, the greater
the chance of finding someone you like, and the less the impact of
having someone on the list you don't like.

That's true, but remember that we're dealing with diminishing returns
here.  Approximately 100 people per sublist versus over 400 people on
the FFML now.

Another message on this subject said the list is not so great anymore
because we don't get to know each other like the veterans used to.
Certainly that can be addressed without splitting the list. Some of the
spams going on, like the over-40 discussion, "how do you find time to
write?" and "how do you get in the mood to write?" are already giving
some people a chance to discuss things besides C&C. I think some of the
heated spam debates do that also -- although they leave me personally
feeling rather peaked and hung over.

That's *nothing* compared to what used to go on a little less than two
years ago.  Certainly, that happens now, I'll admit.  But OTOH, how
often have you seen a thread where not only are opinions asked for, but
asked for *by name*?  Recently, I can think of maybe one or two cases.
But when the list first began, there was almost a familial unity, and
everyone knew everyone else, or nearly so.  That's impossible now.  I'm
trying to recreate that.

While I am a little embarrassed to propose one of those grade-school
classroom things wherein we all take turns saying where we are, there is
something to say for the idea. Perhaps, to avoid heavy traffic, we could
get a coordinator (NOT ME! I don't have the server space) who is willing
to receive short self-introductions from everyone, compile them, post
the list to the FFML once a month, and periodically update it and send
it to new subscribers.

Marisa Price is doing this now, but, believe it or not, this happened
back when the list first started.  Look up Gopher's archive, and read
some of the "Bios" threads.  This is rather an unweildy project to have
everyone just helter skelter post their bio to the list now, since we
have over 400 people.  But back then, it was more like 50-100.  It took
me a little while, but I began to recognize a majority of the names/
email addresses on the list, and I could *tell* who was new.  I just
can't tell any more.  I really hate that, I'm sad to say.

If White Wolf is amenable, an invitation to
self-introduce upon subscribing to the list could be added to the FAQ.
One possible set of questions for a self-introducer to consider would
be:  full name/nickname, age, sex, occupation, anime/manga interests,
non-anime/manga interests, webpage address if any. Anything suitable for
all ages would be accepted as a self-introduction, of course.

Some people do not want to do this, and no one really has time to wade
through 400+ bios "just because".  It was less of a problem back then.

Damon Casale, damoo@carmelnet.com
Spam, spam!  WONDERFUL spam!  ^_^